Tank Keeps Clouding Up, Nitrates Skyrocketing, What To Do?

[Freedom]

My 50 gallon tank is making me crazy!  Problem has been for about 10 to 12 days.
 
The only thing I can think of is when I did a water change, I mistakenly squeazed out the 2 moss balls in the tank, not in the bucket.  Other than that, I've no idea what is happening.  I've done FOUR 80% water changes in this period.  As I put in the new water, I can actually see the tank start to cloud.  At one point, I used no lights for 3 days.  Tank kept getting cloudier and cloudier.  At another point, I did not feed for 3 days (went out of town) and same thing, tank was worse when I returned than when I left.
 
Using API freshwater master test kit, just took readings:
pH is 6.4 or lower
Ammonia is at .5
Nitrite is at .5
Nitrate is at 20 and it's only been 3 minutes (need to wait 5 minutes).
 
I just did an 80% water change on Thurs evening, now it is Sat evening.
 
Tank holds:
10 lamb chop rasporas, T. espei
10 rummy nose tetras , H. bleheri
6 albino corys (aeneus)
4 bronze corys (aeneus)
5 danios
3 mystery snails
variety of red cherry shrimp
 
Also a mix of plastic, silk and live plants including:
anubias, naja grass, java moss, java fern, subwassertang, Green Cryptocoryne (Cryptocoryne wndtii), Bacopa (Bacopa carolinianan),  Cyprus helferi, Wisteria (Hygrophylla difformis), and the 2 moss balls.
 
I use Seachem's Prime for the water conditioner, and Seachem's Stability was added daily for the first week, and at each water change.
 
All the fish seem FINE, no gasping, no odd behaviors.  They eat everything I put in within a minute. 
 
Based on the above readings, I need to do yet another major water change.  What else can I do?  What is making this tank so nuts?
Here is the tank:

 
I had a piece of driftwood in there, removed it last night just to see if that was making any difference, but I've not seen anything but it getting more and more cloudy all day today.
 
AND apparently my cories are depositing eggs, saw these for the first time late yesterday, as of today they are in 5 or 6 places

 
 
My other tank is FINE.

 
Thank you for info.
 
 

 

[Ninjouzata]

I think it's due to the tank not being cycled. It'll take some time to get through this. I'm sorry I can't recall if ammonia is dangerous at this pH and level or not.
 
Nitrite you want to do something about I think regardless of pH. You can remove it through water changes or bind it with salt.
You may want to wait til someone more experienced in this stuff comes along though.
 
"To add 10 ppm of chloride for every ppm of nitrite in the water, use the following steps:
 
1. Multiply your nitrite reading by 10. This will give you the needed mg/l of chloride to will need to add.
2. Calculate the actual volume in liters of water in your tank. If your volume is in gallons you must convert this into liters. (As a rule, using the advertised volume of the tank at about 85% will put you in the right ballpark.)
3. Multiply the number in #1 above by the number of liters of water in #2 above to get the total mg of  chloride you will need to add.
4. Because salt is roughly 2/3 chloride, you must multiply the number calculated in #3 by 1.5.  You now know how many mg of salt you should add to the water. Dividing this number by 1,000 will convert this amount to grams which are easier to weigh for most people.
5. Do not add salt directly to the tank. Remove some tank water to a container and mix the salt in that, then add the salt water to the tank spreading it around the surface.
6. The amount of salt needed is not very much compared to a brackish or salt water tank. So don't worry about the salt harming things, especially for the short time you would need it in the water.
 
You will need to continue testing for nitrite because any rise may mean that further salt additions are needed. Once the cycle is done, or even as nitrite drops, you can reduce or eliminate the salt from the tank via water changes."
 
Can you take a small bit of filter media from your other tank and put it in this one's filter? That will speed the process up.

 

[Freedom]

Can you take a small bit of filter media from your other tank and put it in this one's filter? That will speed the process up.

Not really, that filter is completely different and has very little flexibility.
 
I have lots of added sponge media in the 50 gal filter, plus added one media brick I had from the old biolife filter.  So the filter is full of media. 

 

[Freedom]

I think it's due to the tank not being cycled. It'll take some time to get through this. I'm sorry I can't recall if ammonia is dangerous at this pH and level or not.
 
Nitrite you want to do something about I think regardless of pH. You can remove it through water changes or bind it with salt.

OK, doing the calculations, I need to add 1.2 grams of aquarium salt.  That will address the nitrites.
 
Do I still do the water change to address the nitrates?

 

[Ninjouzata]

The reason I was saying to take some media from the other tank is that will have the bacteria you want on it and speed up the cycle.
 
The nitrates are fine right now I think.

 

[Freedom]

The reason I was saying to take some media from the other tank is that will have the bacteria you want on it and speed up the cycle.
 
The nitrates are fine right now I think.

Yes, I realized that.  Just not possible to move any.
 
Salt went in.  Is that it for tonight?

 

[Ninjouzata]

Oh okay, sorry I misunderstood
 
I believe that's all for tonight. Hopefully someone with more knowledge and experience can help you later.

 

[Freedom]

OK, thanks.

 

[Xzavier247]

Looks like your tank is still cycling. I would do water changes and just let the cycle finish.cloudy water is most likely to be a bacteria bloom. I wouldn't add any chemicals either. Just water conditioner. Prime is awesome but that should be it.